The art of simulation
ACM SIGSIM Simulation Digest
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Manufacturing systems are very complicated, so it is very difficult to grasp the actual behaviour of the manufacturing processes in detail. Even if we obtain a new idea of the scheduling algorithm or the process layout, it takes a long time until the idea is put into practical use, because it is difficult to prove the actual validity of the idea. The simulation technique is valid to solve this bottleneck. However, the conventional simulators lack the ability to simultaneously simulate the material flows and the control systems' behaviour. In this papers, the authors analyze the functions of manufacturing system in the following factors: (a) equipment layout (b) control system, (c) material, (d) operation. According to the analysis, we present a new type simulator which is named “MAFLOS&rdquo. MAFLOS is characterized by the following features. (a) MAFLOS has seven kinds of unit-element to describe the equipment layout of the manufacturing system. The simulation model is therefore generated by combining these unit-element. (b) MAFLOS can simultaneously simulate the material flow and the control system behaviour.